Caricom Leaders Fed-up of Guyana’s Political Culture

“Between the two us, ……. I can tell you frankly that Guyana and Haiti are the two biggest political headaches to the Caribbean Community. ……. Unlike other Caricom member States, your country’s politicians are the most immature, ridiculous, and antagonizing in the Region”.

These were the exact words of one Deputy Prime Minister (Name withheld) of a Caribbean State who asked that his views be taken personally and privately, and not for the intent of the news, or as the official position of his country.

Speaking in a private capacity with the Editor-in-Chief of the Guyana Guardian via a WhatsApp call yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, the politician who currently serves as a senior government Minister in an OECS State expressed that since it was revealed that the no-confidence motion in Guyana has been passed, regional leaders have been discussing its new twists and turns, among themselves with many expressing their wariness at Guyana’s continued political culture.

According to the Minister, many Caricom leaders do not want to be a part of Guyana’s political issues and are not inclined to support the sending of any delegation to help resolve the current no-confidence impasse, – at least not any time soon.

He stressed that “Our respective leaders, especially those within the OECS have written to the United States, Canada and Britain to express our concerns. We prefer to let them deal with it. Because in reality, we are fed-up of having to deal with the same controversial political culture of Guyanese politicians over the years mostly whenever an election is over”.

Pointing to other countries in the region, he reasoned that every other Caricom country, ranging from Trinidad and Tobago to the Bahamas have matured in the handling of their political issues, and at least have some sort of political dignity.

After repeatedly refusing to share his personal views on whether the APNU-AFC should step down, he later relent and advise that “since both the Guyanese President and the Prime Minister had publicly acknowledged defeat, and the other leaders of the Caribbean community has already accepted that position, then they should do the dignified thing and call a general elections, rather than singing a different tune to the same beat now”.

While several other CARICOM leaders have refused to publicly share their opinion on the current political impasse between government and the opposition, at least two former Prime Ministers have since promised to formally comment on the issue before the end of the new week.

Guyana is currently locked in a political crisis after a No-Confidence motion against the APNU-AFC government that was repeatedly labelled as passed by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Barton Scotland, is now being disregarded by the said government.

The APNU-AFC which had initially accepted defeat has since claimed that the 33 to 32 motion was not properly passed, and has further claimed that the vote by one of their dissenting MP’s Charandass Persaud was unlawful.

They have since refused to step down, and are now mounting a series of court challenges, which the opposition PPP has claimed to be an effort by the APNU-AFC to ‘unconstitutionally’ remain in office.